Friday, August 31, 2018

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Every year, a new group
of students walks into the CAPS Teacher Education program in the Blue Valley
School District. Never knowing the students' backgrounds or abilities, it
is always a great deal of fun watching emerging leaders and shaping our
activities to the interests and passions of each of them.

Last week, students were able to join other students in the other CAPS Strands for an all-CAPS Hackathon. The Teacher Ed students worked on varied teams with other CAPS students to come up with solutions for issues presented by some of our business and professional partners! It was fun listening to all of their pitches, and the clients were blown away by the professionalism of all of the students!

Just this past week, we
had our first full week of classroom time. Though we only had five days,
we packed a great deal into our schedules.

Students brainstormed on topics for presentations of
concurrent sessions at conferences and came up with "Relationships,
Technology, and Mental Health: A student-focused conversation" The
thoroughness of our discussions is revealed in the conference session
description: "Technology has
had a positive place in education with its resources for learning and
communication, but it also has received negative press considering
addictions to devices, time on task, and isolation of students.
Students, however, feel that they are not connected to devices but
rather connected to a network and community in which they live. Educators
could feel more comfortable with this concept if technology could be
viewed as an asset rather than a distraction. Join us to hear from
students on how teachers can leverage technology to not only build better
relationships with students and each other, but also as a way to promote
mental health, confidence, positivity, and acceptance into a lifelong
community of learners.

This session is created by and presented by eleventh and twelfth
grade high school students who are a part of a Teacher Education program at the
Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies. They work with
practicing teachers and their students and also research and study innovations
in learning."

We have submitted our proposal to present at the Greenbush
Educational Technology Conference this Fall and are now waiting to see if our
proposal will be accepted to present.

Students, this week, were also introduced to the professional side
of Twitter, many being asked to create a Twitter account just to use with
education professionals with whom they associate as a part of our class
activities. Time was also spent playing a game of Family Feud and participating
in an activity to get to know each other better. In addition, the students went
on a virtual scavenger hunt using the Goosechase App, to learn more about the
CAPS building and some of the people in it.

All students set up their Educators Rising accounts at
educatorsrising.org so that they can collaborate with future and practicing
teachers across the nation.

Projects were discussed, and students had an opportunity to
designate some as those they might want to pursue because of their interests or
passions. We are still coming up with project ideas as well. Some of the
projects we are planning are the following:

WHITEHORSE-working with the Indigo Project on
developing curriculum for students of the Navajo Nation who attend school
in Utah

STEM virtual teaching-working with Dr. Lucas Shivers,
Director of Elementary Education in Manhattan, KS, to design a STEM
workshop for 5th graders and teach it virtually using a Double Robot

LITERACY project-working with Stanley Elementary on
reading strategies and mentoring 5th graders as Instructional Coaches as
they work with 2nd graders

CAPS KIDS--what would happen if we could start our own
school? Many students are interested in researching and looking at
the possibilities!

…and other projects are possibilities as well!

Students also took the
INDIGO surveys this week which provides to them information about their
strengths, skills areas, and dynamics of group interactions. We will
continue to look at these results as we work with each other and with students
and teachers in classrooms.

Very soon, our students
will be entering classrooms to work with students and teachers. After
this week's discussions on design thinking, growth and fixed mindsets, and
project/problem based learning, our students will have a very authentic
approach to working with their students and creating learning activities.

I'm sure this next week
will be packed with more incredible genius and fun! Please watch our
website for upcoming events and information: http://tinyurl.com/capsteachered
and follow us on Twitter: @wevegotclass

I have seen the future of education,( I see the makers every day), and it is great!